Al Jazeera Acquires Current TV

Al Jazeera Acquires Current TV

Very interesting:

Al Jazeera has struck a deal to purchase Current TV and launch a new U.S.-based news channel.

"For many years, we understood that we could make a positive contribution to the news and information available in and about the United States and what we are announcing today will help us achieve that goal," said Al Jazeera director general Ahmed bin Jassim Al Thani. "By acquiring Current TV, Al Jazeera will significantly expand our existing distribution footprint in the U.S., as well as increase our newsgathering and reporting efforts in America."

"We are proud and pleased that Al Jazeera, the award-winning international news organization, has bought Current TV," said Al Gore, co-founder and chairman, and Joel Hyatt, co-founder and CEO.

Current TV had a distribution footprint of 58 million households, but following news of the acquisition, Time Warner Cable said it would drop the network. TWC has positioned Current on digital basic, making it available to some 9 million homes.

"Our agreement with Current has been terminated and we will no longer be carrying the service," a TWC spokeswoman said. "We are removing the service as quickly as possible."

When a cable network is sold or changes its programming direction, distributors can revisit their deals. Other providers that carry the low-rated Current could follow suit. SNL Kagan estimates Current TV’s monthly subscriber fee at 12 cents.

The sale, which was first reported Wednesday in the New York Times, will see Al Jazeera rebrand the network as a domestic and international news channel for American audiences in 2013, replacing Current's schedule of political shows after a transition period. The new network will be based in New York, with Al Jazeera looking to open new bureaus to supplement its existing news bureaus in New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Miami and Chicago. The company expects to its current U.S. based staff to 300 employees.

An acquisition of the low-rated Current TV was expected, with the network acknowledging it was considering a sale in October, saying then, "Current has been approached many times by media companies interested in acquiring our company. This year alone, we have had three inquiries. As a consequence, we thought it might be useful to engage expertise to help us evaluate our strategic options."

Given TWC's quick decision ,the sale could make Al Jazeera's new network available to around 50 million U.S. subscribers. Its Al Jazeera English channel is currently only available on cable and satellite in select cities, including New York and Washington, D.C., despite Al Jazeera lobbying for greater carriage after the Arab Spring in 2011.

Founded in 2005, Current TV was rebranded as a political news channel in 2011 with the hire of Keith Olbermann, but his show failed to generate big ratings and he was fired from the network last spring. Subsequent shows hosted by Jennifer Granholm, Cenk Uygur and others have also failed to break out, with Current drawing about 42,000 viewers on an average night in 2012, according to Nielsen.

Re: Al Jazeera Acquires Current TV

boricua65 wrote:

I was so looking forward to this channel, instead of being spoon fed a bunch of b s. Now I'm (we all are) stuck with junk channels, instead of true news.

Speak for yourself. I don't typically watch any of the 24 hr news channels and instead rely on the internet to provide me with the news that I want. When I watch the news it's typically local. Would I have tuned in to see what the hype is all about, probably, but would it have been my primary, no.

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I was promised at signup the Al Jazeera channel, where is it? Is this another AT&T scam?

I changed my business and personal accounts to ATT Uverse on the promise I would have the Al Jazeera channel. Where is it? I have been scammed by this company before, I hope this is not another one. I had hoped AT&T was rebuilding their reputation, but probably not. This was a costly mistake but I will drop AT&T if nessary. I have nine accounts. I will take a few other companies with me.

Re: I was promised at signup the Al Jazeera channel, where is it? Is this another AT&T scam?

[ Edited ]

I tend to go to BBC News if I want a different perspective on the news. Like others have said, various US-based news outlets put a very one-sided spin on things. BBC News, at least when it comes to events that happen in the US, have no spin (or at least a minimum of it) since they haven't signed up to either the Dems or the Reps.

Re: I was promised at signup the Al Jazeera channel, where is it? Is this another AT&T scam?

cygx2 wrote:

I changed my business and personal accounts to ATT Uverse on the promise I would have the Al Jazeera channel. Where is it? I have been scammed by this company before, I hope this is not another one. I had hoped AT&T was rebuilding their reputation, but probably not. This was a costly mistake but I will drop AT&T if nessary. I have nine accounts. I will take a few other companies with me.

All of this on account of one news channel that no one cared about before Current TV sold out. Amazing.!

Owning a computer and not having the internet is like buying a refrigerator and not stocking it with food.

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Re: Al Jazeera Acquires Current TV

That's a boldface LIE. The owners complied with the contract terms and conditions to the last detail. AT&T is a greedy right wing extremist corporation that leeches off the public, and censors out anything that's not aligned with their political bent.

Re: Al Jazeera Acquires Current TV

Don't providers of pay TV have a clause in their contracts to drop channels in the case of ownership changes? I hope these people throw a similar hissy fit when they find out Time Warner doesn't have CBS and Showtime or when ComcastDishDirect has contracts and is lacking channels.

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Re: Al Jazeera Acquires Current TV

[ Edited ]

PizzaioloMike wrote:

That's a boldface LIE. The owners complied with the contract terms and conditions to the last detail. AT&T is a greedy right wing extremist corporation that leeches off the public, and censors out anything that's not aligned with their political bent.

Screw you, AT&T, I am about to pull the plug on you!

Yes, you are correct. AT&T. the greedy right wing extremist corporation, censors out left-liberal leaning channels such as CNN, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, ABC, and when it was in existence, Current TV. Oh wait, all of those channels are still there except for Current TV, which is no longer in existence.

Owning a computer and not having the internet is like buying a refrigerator and not stocking it with food.

Owning a computer and not having the internet is like buying a refrigerator and not stocking it with food.

*The views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.

Re: Al jazeera? Really?

Not that I watched current t.v. but how the heck can the f.c.c. allow foreign ownership of a network? Especiallly al jazeera!!!!

For all those complaining about Al-Jazeera's ties, you might be interested to know that the second largest shareholder in News Corp., the parent company of Fox News, is Saudi Prince Alaweed bin Talal.

Quite frankly this is the least of my problems with Fox News, but seriously people, grow up. We live in a globalized world. Every major company has global ties. That so many people here seem to think Al-Jazeera supports terrorists is a pretty good sign that Americans aren't being well served by our current news networks, which are a disappointing mix of infotainment, hype, half-baked ideologies, and idiotic pundits more interested in spewing talking points than giving people the knowledge they need to be informed citizens.

Shares offered are pubic. Who buys them is not under the control of the corporation offering them.

Unless there's a majority holding, all he can do is state a preference and leave it to the board or try to gather a coalition with other holders to gain a majority to load the board with members that will execute according to their wishes.

Al-Jazeera is owned and operated by the sultanate of Qutar, he says, they do (or do not).

I agree that, as long as it doesn't raise the cost to the U-verse consumer, it should have been added at least on a trial basis. Having all customer pay extra for what a very small minority of customer will watch is not good business. Having it as part of other add-on packages would be better, but the administration and initial setuup of an ad-hoc package adds to the cost too.

If it gains popularity, it may be added later. We'll see.

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Re: Al jazeera? Really?

[ Edited ]

A very well written post, ScottMac. I sure hope that AT&T's refusal to carry it, is truly a contract dispute and not one based upon ideology (or a fear of a few folks being upset by it). Long story short: I would prefer to be the one who chooses if I watch or not and not a multi million dollar companies call.

*The views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.

Re: Current Tv

It shows the lact of basic brain knowledge Al Jazerra is NOT a terrorist news agency they have hired many American jounalist the gutter new from FOX is what we consider new well its NOT its a tabloid to numb Americans

Re: Current Tv

Roland11 wrote:

It shows the lact of basic brain knowledge Al Jazerra is NOT a terrorist news agency they have hired many American jounalist the gutter new from FOX is what we consider new well its NOT its a tabloid to numb Americans

??????????????????????????????? What the heck are you talking about??????

Owning a computer and not having the internet is like buying a refrigerator and not stocking it with food.

*The views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.